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Ponder This:

Real public servants are free enterprising individuals who, inspired, embrace challenge, take risks, and create, sometimes big, and often, they create jobs in the process, all out of their ideas, and self initiative...

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

In the aftermath of the media scrutiny surrounding the verdict in the Kelly Thomas case, the media and bloggers have missed an opportunity to ask the question of not just how this happened, but what kind of police department should we have? Manuel Ramos’ attorney John Barnett clearly won the legal argument, as the jury believed him when he stated both during closing statements and to the press, “These peace officers were doing their jobs … they did what they were trained to do.” Barnett’s use of the word “peace officer” was deliberate and was repeated by both the print and broadcast media. It was meant to portray the police actions that evening as not both necessary, but “just”

Saturday, January 11, 2014

Just days after a federal lawsuit accused Omaha police of excessive force in a widely publicized (see video below) “caught on tape” tape case, two more officers have been fired bringing the total to six.

Friday, January 10, 2014

Sacramento — Democratic legislators routinely accuse Republicans of giving a cold shoulder to the poor and downtrodden. Yet the tables were turned at a Capitol hearing on Wednesday as a Democratic chairwoman sparred with a Republican who introduced a bill to cut the tax burden of victims of Ponzi schemes of the sort run by Bernie Madoff.

In opposing Senate Bill 797, Sen. Lois Wolk, D-Davis, said she understands the dire consequences of the situation, but that people can’t expect the state government to step in and help when these scams occur.

Thursday, January 9, 2014

A study published in the latest issue of the academic journal Applied Economics Letters took on many of the claims made regularly by advocates of stricter gun laws. The study determined that nearly every claim made in support of stronger restrictions on gun ownership is not supported by an exhaustive analysis of crime statistics.

Is it any wonder that both patients’ advocates and gun owners warned the Department of Health and Human Services that its proposed actions would discourage treatment and endanger public safety? Of course, the exercise is not about public safety, but rather about President Obama’s efforts to destroy what his allies call the “gun manufacturers’ lobby.”The problem for him is that neither Congress nor the American people support his efforts.

Happy New Year. Just when you thought the NSA spying scandal couldn’t get any worse, it has.Last week, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wrote to Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Administration (NSA), and asked plainly whether the NSA has been or is now spying on members of Congress or other public officials. The senator’s letter was no doubt prompted by the revelations of Edward Snowden to the effect that the federal government’s lust for personal private data about all Americans and many foreigners knows no bounds, and its respect for the constitutionally protected and statutorily enforced right to privacy is nonexistent.

Thursday, January 2, 2014

The philosophy of individualism and the politics of laissez-faire would mean government spending of about one-tenth its present level. It would also mean an end to all regulatory agencies: no SEC, FDA, NLRB, FAA, OSHA, EPA, FTC, ATF, CFTC, FHA, FCC–to name just some of the better known of the 430 agencies listed in the federal register.

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Americans are still talking about the recently deflated housing bubble, but there’s a new bubble in town. It’s the student loan bubble and when this one pops, it might dwarf the wreckage we’ve witnessed in the real-estate markets. In the latest news, the Federal Reserve’s Board of Governors warned that soaring student-loan debt has “parallels to the housing crisis,”

For all the austerity talk, the Brown administration is ignoring unfunded liabilities and other debts run up in the previous decade to cover the rapidly escalating costs of retirement and medical benefits for public employees. Sure, the budget is balanced—if one ignores those items, just as your personal budget may be balanced if you ignore credit-card debt and student loans.

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

To be sure, this review is deeply unfair. I’m comparing the best on the
market (which is the iPad, in my view) with the worst on the market —
and what is the fault of the hardware, firmware, and apps is very much
mixed up. In any case, this is a dollar-store item sold in stacks at the
cash register. There are so many products that are in between. The
Google tablet (Nexus) looks just fantastic, is getting great reviews,
and is half the price of a an iPad or iPad Mini. Samsung also offers
what looks like an outstanding product at half the price. The newer
Kindles like the Paperwhite seem effortless (but still won’t read
certain file types).

Finally posted something on Gadfly. Have been in retreat. I am dealing some monumental life changes in my personal life, and so have gone into something of a cocoon. When I'm ready, I'll be back on the air.

I was finding my voice, and then a convergence of the harshness of seeing for the first time, the reality of the state, and world I live in, in a way I had not understood before, and my personal life shifting dramatically, but if not for the joy and love present, I would have held back in fear.

The elections, and the reality of our political state knocked the wind out of my breath.

I am studying. I am accounting. I am grateful and want to be gracious, generous, and effective.

Saturday, December 1, 2012

I was doing a search to choose the difference between blank DVD's, not that I know what exactly I'll use them for, but I do know we're about make a lot of video data. This video applies to recordable discs including those for CDs. Good thing to know. I've probably ruined a lot of data because I used a black Sharpie Marker on the back, on the cover, and I had no idea I was ruining the data. Check out this youtube video to see why. The Danger of using recordable CDs or DVDs for backing up important data - YouTube

"If a widespread pattern of [knock-and-announce] violations were shown . . . there would be reason for grave concern."—Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, in Hudson v. Michigan, June 15, 2006.An interactive map of botched SWAT and paramilitary police raids, released in conjunction with the Cato policy paper "Overkill: The Rise of Paramilitary Police Raids," by Radley Balko. What does this map mean?How to use this mapView Original Map and Database

Key

Death of an innocent.

Death or injury of a police officer.

Death of a nonviolent offender.

Raid on an innocent suspect.

Other examples of paramilitary police excess.

Unnecessary raids on doctors and sick people.

The proliferation of SWAT teams, police militarization, and the Drug War have given rise to a dramatic increase in the number of "no-knock" or "quick-knock" raids on suspected drug offenders. Because these raids are often conducted based on tips from notoriously unreliable confidential informants, police sometimes conduct SWAT-style raids on the wrong home, or on the homes of nonviolent, misdemeanor drug users. Such highly-volatile, overly confrontational tactics are bad enough when no one is hurt -- it's difficult to imagine the terror an innocent suspect or family faces when a SWAT team mistakenly breaks down their door in the middle of the night.But even more disturbing are the number of times such "wrong door" raids unnecessarily lead to the injury or death of suspects, bystanders, and police officers. Defenders of SWAT teams and paramilitary tactics say such incidents are isolated and rare. The map above aims to refute that notion.